Within a network system, a web server may host a web page that includes both web page content displayed within a content area of the web page, as well as supplemental content displayed within one or more dedicated non-content areas of the web page. An auction server may be in communication with the web server to run an online auction for selecting supplemental content for insertion into the non-content areas. The auction server may select winners of the online auction based on bids received from supplemental content owners to “win” one or more of the non-content areas.
When each non-content area available on the web page is uniform, or at least substantially uniform, in size and/or the type of content available for insertion into the non-content area, the estimated worth of each non-content area may be relatively easy to calculate for the online auction. Accurately calculating an estimated worth for the non-content areas allows the auction server to provide bid prices that better represent the worth of the non-content areas to the supplemental content owners.
However, newer types of non-uniform supplemental content having previously unavailable attributes not seen before, such as size, proportions, and characteristics, are being developed. The introduction of such newer types of supplemental content may not be effectively handled by previous online auction platforms that were intended to handle uniform supplemental content.